The Conundrum of Power and Control

Looking at the recent releases of movies for the summer I see a recurrent theme.

Humankind's blatant misuse of power and control run through all these movies. I saw X-Men III tonight. It demonstrates my conundrum theory to a 'T'. I don't want to give away the movie to those who haven't seen it, but there are examples spread throughout.

Basically, the conundrum is this: At some point those in control will try to control those with power. Those with power often are unable to control their power and will eventually fall to their own strengths. The conundrum comes into play when those in control are pressing for to change things to their way of thinking good or bad. They realize that those who have power are becoming a threat to their ideology. Here is where the conundrum begins to envelop and consume both power and control.

Those who are in control of the plight for good eventually find someone in their own ranks that has become a threat to the stability of their way of life. They manipulate this peer hoping to keep them from getting out of control. In doing so, they violate their own principles in the name of maintaining good. The same happens with those in control of the plight for evil.

Those who have the power in any given situation are frequently not those who have the authority or the ability to control that power. They rise rapidly through the ranks of their peers because of their power. Eventually, they become unsatisfied by their lack of control over their own power and will often flip sides until one side or the other or both must rise up to squelch them.

As both the above continue to build, they consume each other. This causes those in control to lose control and ultimately those with power self-destruct just as they think they have gained control. Their lack of self control makes them ill fitted to control their peers. Those that were in control now become overrun by new factions. These new factions build their strengths on knowledge and power that have been gleaned from those who are now falling from control and power. The strengths of the powerful and the knowledge that allowed those in control to be in such positions have now become their weakness.

The vicious cycle starts over to continue without end. The only possible end is to continue.

So, this sounded really great in my head, especially when the images from X-Men III are still vibrant. You're probably confused after reading this but it makes sense to me and I guess that's all that is required.